dementia & social isolation

Quality ‘I’ Statements

People want a society where they are able to say:

• I have personal choice and control over the decisions that affect me

• I know that services are designed around me, my

needs and my carer’s needs

• I have support that helps me live my life • I have the knowledge to get what I need

Quality statements

• I live in an enabling and supportive environment where I feel valued and understood

• I have a sense of belonging and of being a valued part of family, community and civic life

• I am confident my end of life wishes will be respected. I can expect a good death

• I know that there is research going on which will

deliver a better life for people with dementia, and I know how I can contribute to it.

Prime Minister’s Challenge

• 2012-2015 & 2015-2020 • 50 commitments over four themes: - Risk reduction; - Health and care; - Awareness and social action; - Research. • Most can only be met through joint efforts • Two clear phases: - to 2018, government & partners - 2018-2020 Indicative and less detailed actions, which may change as funding, research and best practice change. • Felt that an implementation plan was needed

• Better support for people with dementia & their carers following diagnosis

• People able to live in their own home with dementia for longer

• Improved waiting times for diagnosis, applied consistently and country-wide

• GPs ensuring continuity of care • All people with dementia being given the opportunity

to plan ahead at the right time through advanced care planning

PwD and their carers’ key priorities

What you could do… • Raise awareness of dementia & depression: - Reduce stigma - Increase diagnosis rate • Healthy lifestyles advice • Nutrition & hydration • Exercise • Reduce social isolation • Support groups for people with dementia and their carers • Work with partners for a joined up approach • Staff training in dementia & depression • Take part in a Dementia Friendly Communities

programme • Dementia friendly housing

Personal Assistants - Dementia

Dementia Support Worker: Hard to Reach Groups

Dudley & Walsall Mental Health Partnership Trust provide: Community team, Memory Assessment Service, wards and a day hospital

Older People Mental Health Liaison Team

Acute hospital dementia café & activities

Butterfly Tea Party

Feedback

• I was in pain but joined in and it took my mind off things • Absolutely loved it – loved the food • Enjoyed laughing and joking with the others • Mom was very talkative – the best I have seen her in

weeks • Loved the singing and activities and laughed all afternoon • Loved the stories and talking about my life • Enjoyed crafting • My wife seemed uplifted • My wife was in bed but enjoyed the activities still • Happy and smiling through the afternoon • My mom had a wonderful time and family loved it too • Lilian was a real star with her playing of the instruments

Dementia cafés

New Art Gallery, Walsall

Carers interview new staff, score tenders and are members of redesign groups

Good on Walsall!

Well done Walsall nice to hear something positive

This is great news to hear that Walsall doing something good and doing this puts Walsall on the map I'm impressed by

this caring idea

Kudos to Walsall!

Good for you Walsall the caring Black Country

Feedback on our DFC approach

Every village, town & city in the UK should follow Walsall, what an example to set for the world!!!

I'm not the biggest fan of Walsall but this is amazing

Others would do well to follow

Nice to see something being done to help those with that awful disease

Loneliness

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”

Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997)

“People can be lonely while in the middle of a crowd. Conversely, one can be alone

and not feel lonely.” (Beaumont, J. 2013)

The National Picture- Older People 1 in 6 have contact with a family member, friend or neighbour on less than one occasion per week

1 in 9 have such contact on less than one occasion per month

Over 20% state that they are lonely (Age UK, 2014)

About 3.8 million live alone

17% are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week

12% feel trapped in their own home

9% say they feel cut off from society

Office for National Statistics

Older People Living Alone in the UK

23

0

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

Total populationaged 65-74

predicted to livealone

Total populationaged 75 and overpredicted to live

alone

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

POPPI 2016

Why loneliness is a concern It is more harmful to health than: smoking 15 cigarettes, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle, obesity (Campaign to end loneliness)

It is found to be higher in people with higher blood pressure

4 times more likely to have depression

9 times more likely to develop dementia in the following 15 years

9 times more likely to visit the GP

6 times more likely to visit A&E

3 times more likely to have an emergency admission

5 times more likely to enter local authority-funded residential care

Age UK

Identifying the lonely

Living alone

Being single, divorced, never married

Low income

Living in residential care

Bereavement

Becoming a carer or giving up caring

Retirement

Aged 75 plus

From an ethnic minority community

Being gay or lesbian

Poor health

Immobile

high levels of material deprivation and crime

(University of York 2013)

Interventions and Approaches

Main categories of direct loneliness interventions to:

support and maintain existing relationships

foster and enable new connections

help people to change their thinking about their social connections

Most common approaches designed to:

reach lonely individuals

understand the nature of an individual’s loneliness and developing a personalised response

support lonely individuals to access appropriate services

Connect

Be

Active

Take

Notice

Keep

Learning

Give

Five Ways to

Wellbeing

Helping strengthen my social

connections “I need help to know

where I can go and how I can get

there-I like to go to mass on Sundays

& would like to go to luncheon club.”

Helping me

participate in

physical activity.“I enjoy gardening and

short walks but need

some help.”

Enabling me to catch

sight of the

beautiful.“I don’t see many people -it would

be nice to have tea with

a visitor on the porch -

I like to know what’s

happening”

Support me to try

something new. “ Give me the opportunity

to learn new things at home

and in my community”

Make it possible for

me to do something

nice for a friend or

stranger. “I want to help others-

I have lots of

knowledge, skill and

experience I just need a

little assistance

How you can help me stay well at home by... Listen to me! – Help

me choose! By Sally Wall

Initiative Housing Could Adopt

Housing with Care

A Dining Experience

Elderly Tea Parties

Shopping Service

Neighbourhood wardens

Good neighbour schemes

Connecting neighbours

Volunteering

Men’s shed

Befriending services (face to face and telephone)

Social prescribing

Angela Aitken Senior Programme Development and Commissioning Manager

(Wellbeing, Mental Health, Older Peoples Health) Public Health

Walsall Council angela.aitken@walsall.gov.uk

Michael Hurt

Head of Older People & Dementia Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group & Walsall Council

michael.hurt@walsall.nhs.uk